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Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed federal programs created to address the needs of at-risk and delinquent youths, focusing on: (1) identifying at-risk and delinquent youth programs that included mentoring as a type of service; (2) who administers the programs; (3) the objectives of the programs; and (4) the authorizing legislation for the programs.

GAO noted that: (1) federal agencies fund numerous programs that make mentoring services available for at-risk and delinquent youths; (2) in fiscal year 1998, 45 of the 117 programs that received funding for at-risk or delinquent youth components included mentoring services, according to agency officials; (3) these 45 programs are administered by 10 agencies; (4) the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Corporation for National and Community Service administered 31, or 69 percent, of these programs; (5) in many of these programs, mentoring is only a small part of the program; (6) the two programs that included mentors or mentoring in their program objectives are in DOJ and HHS; and (7) information on the administering agencies and legislative authorizations for the 45 mentoring programs is included in the enclosure.